Web-based monitoring and control system

ABSTRACT

An event driven, network enabled off-site management listening system (“Listener”) manages remote devices by listening to unsolicited events communicated from devices connected to the Internet, and from a Mission Controller. The Listener listens for messages, decrypts them, and writes the message to the message queue where a Message Decoder retrieves the message. The Message Decoder decodes the messages and updates the database with location and device specific status information. The Listener also takes messages from the Mission Controller to be executed in a specific sequence, and transmits those messages over the Internet to the specific locations and devices as specified by the Mission Controller. Web-based applications allow end users to monitor and control any device or component connected to the Home Central system from any Internet-enabled device or public communications network.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of Invention

The present invention relates to residential and small businessmanagement systems, and more particularly, to integrated managementsolutions having networking, security, automation, monitoring, energymanagement, web-enabled applications, IP devices and remote accesscapabilities.

2. Description of Related Art

Advances in consumer electronics, home networking, network-enableddevices and wireless technologies have brought significant newcapabilities to home and small business owners. While these devicesperform everything from high speed Internet access to video surveillanceto automation to digital entertainment, users are confronted withislands of technology and multiple applications to learn and manage. Itwould be beneficial to integrate these devices and systems into asingle, easy-to-use platform.

Conventional security systems, home automation, energy management andother stand-alone systems, use a written intelligence device that sitson the premises of every residence using the service. This conventionalsystem generally communicates with the user via the user's PC, or itconnects to a service provider's gateway so that the user then has toconnect to the provider's servers, which then basically mirrors what isgoing on in the house. In the case of a PC or automation control theserver that manages and operates the system is dedicated on-site. Itwould be beneficial to provide a monitoring & control platform thatmanages the operations of multiple devices and systems at one ormultiple residence locations, and provides reliable remote access viamultiple end-user devices.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The preferred embodiments of the invention include an event driven,network enabled management listening system (“Listener”) which managesremote devices by listening to unsolicited events communicated fromdevices connected to the Internet, and from a Mission Controller. Anoff-site Home Central system incorporates the Listener, a MessageDecoder and a Mission Controller. The Listener listens for messages,decrypts them, and writes the message to the message queue, where theMessage Decoder retrieves the message. The Message Decoder decodes themessages and updates the database with location and device specificstatus information. Using this approach, the Listener is freed up to donothing but listen, decrypt and transfer messages at the protocol layer,so that it can perform these tasks very quickly. The Listener also takesmessages from the Mission Controller, which creates of series ofmessages to be executed in a specific sequence, and transmits thosemessages over the Internet to the specific locations and devices asspecified by the Mission Controller. Web-based applications allow endusers to monitor and control any device or component connected to theHome Central system from any Internet-enabled device or publiccommunications network. The Listener supports UDP and TCPcommunications, and various technologies and tools, including but notlimited to C#, Microsoft, SQL server, Microsoft.NTT framework, and MSMQ.

The Listener provides at least two distinct functions. First it handlesand manages the overall connection lifecycle between a network systemand remote devices located in a dwelling. The devices may include atleast a residential or business security system, a climate controldevice, a lighting automation control interface, one or more cameras,and other IP-enabled devices. Second, the Listener processes missionsthat are ready for execution by monitoring messages indicating anoccurrence of an event and transmitting device specific messagesassociated with the event to a corresponding device to perform themission according to the device specific messages.

Further scope of applicability of the present invention will becomeapparent from the detailed description given hereinafter. However, itshould be understood that the detailed description and specificexamples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, aregiven by way of illustration only, and that the invention is not limitedto the precise arrangements and instrumentalities shown, since theinvention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from thisdetailed description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

The following detailed description of preferred embodiments of theinvention will be better understood when read in conjunction with thefollowing drawings, in which like-referenced numerals designate likeelements, and wherein:

FIG. 1 is an architectural diagram of a home central management systemin accordance with the preferred embodiments;

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary operation of thepreferred listener upon receipt of a communication from the Internet;

FIG. 3 is an exemplary listing of communications in accordance with thepreferred embodiments;

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary table of pre-scheduled events that areto be processed in accordance with the preferred embodiments;

FIG. 5 shows an exemplary illustration of information available to auser communicating remotely from a client system in accordance with thepreferred embodiments; and

FIG. 6 shows another exemplary preferred illustration of informationavailable to a user communicating remotely from a client system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In order for the Listener to manage the connections, it must first get alist of active ports and protocols to listen for. The list of activeports and protocols is stored in a relational database, such as anonline transaction processing database, and is retrieved when theservice begins. For each UDP and TCP port, a new locator/receiver andlistener class is created, respectively. The class then creates a socketto begin listening for incoming messages. The port and protocolcombination is linked to a specific device type. For example, theListener may be configured to associate all TCP messages on port 120 toan environmental device (e.g., Aprilaire thermostats).

As the messages are received, device specific handshaking is processed.For example, a GE NetworkX device can be configured to require anacknowledgment of receipt of messages sent. If the acknowledgment is notreceived, the Listener will transmit again. Once the handshaking iscompleted, the message, along with data to determine the site of origin(e.g., the device sending the message) is stored in a private messagequeue for processing by a decoder. This decoder derives the currentstate or setting of the device or one of its child devices. The Listenercontinues to keep the socket open until no related messages aretransmitted and the socket is closed by the remote system (e.g.,device).

The mission functionality allows the Listener to direct device specificmessages to the remote locations. This functionality allows the Listenerto control the devices at the remote locations while the listener is onsite. One example of mission functionality is the ability to change thecurrent state of an alarm system in a residential house.

While not being limited to a particular theory, the Listener polls thedatabase (e.g., online transaction processing database) periodically(e.g., every tenth of a second) to determine if a mission is ready forprocessing. Once a mission is ready, the message of the mission istranslated into the remote device's protocol and transmitted to thedevice. Missions are usually a multiple step process, with each stephaving a set or predetermined number of retries and a time out window.Preferably, if any one step fails or exceeds the retry or time outlimits, the mission fails. An example of a multiple step mission is toarm a security system while bypassing one or more zones within thehouse. The Listener preferably would first transmit the individual zonebypass command or commands, and then send the arm command to the panel.As an alternative, the listener would first send the “arm” command, andthen send the desired bypass commands. Once all steps of the missionhave completed without error, the mission is marked as successful.

According to the preferred embodiments, the Listener is part of anetwork central system running on the broadband network. This is incontrast to conventional security systems, for example, as describedabove, that use a written intelligence device that sits on the premisesof every residence using the conventional security system. The Listenerand server are located off site and communicate to the users and theirresident devices via the internet. The preferred embodiments treat theInternet like a giant network, by networking the communicating devicesin each location as if they are logically sitting off of the server(e.g., the inventor's hosted servers), so that a user can connectdirectly to the devices in the user's target location regardless of theuser's location. That is, the inventor's server can connect directly tothe home devices and the user can connect to the devices whether theuser is sitting at a home PC or at a remote location across theInternet. The Listener gives the user the ability to treat the devices(e.g., individual components) that are hanging off of the networkcentral system as individual network components instead of, in theconventional arts, as an aggregating point that the user has to go to inorder to be able to get information from the individual components ortwo have multiple, unrelated systems or devices interact with eachother.

For example, conventional security systems that employ cameras in thehome either mirror their video images through a proprietary gateway tovideo servers, and then mirror that image back to a user sitting at acomputer or deploy separate, stand-alone systems on the premises. Theconventional systems have a connection from the cameras to thewebservers such that the user can only view their camera via theInternet, which is inefficient. There is an out route for the videogoing to the servers, and an out route for the user to attach to theservers. The user cannot connect directly to his or her camera.

However, according to the preferred embodiments, the central systemincludes a server that is an IP device and sits on the edge of thenetwork. The system knows the IP address of the user's camera. A user inhis or her residence can connect directly to the camera since thecommunication does not go through the network. Instead of mirroring offof conventional servers, the home PC computer connects directly to thecamera via a router in the home and receives the direct image of thecamera. Additionally, the cameras can be configured to respond to otherevents on the servers such as motion triggered by the security system orother event-driven responses as readily understood by a skilled artisan.

If the home device is a network camera, the preferred system literallyconnects the home PC to the camera when the user views live videoaccesses the camera configurations. In the conventional systems, a usersends the command down to a PC or a controller that then translates theprotocol and then communicates with the gateway or controller. Instead,the Home Central servers provide the protocol conversions, communicatewith the Listener listening to communication on the Internet, andprovide services as the on-site aggregation point.

Conventionally, an on-site device, such as a PC or automation controlleris required on-site. In contrast, the Home Central system does notrequire such devices on-site since it houses its application logic onits servers off-site, where it is accessible by the users via theInternet. This approach is more efficient than the conventional systemsas it is much easier to upgrade the software since it is hosted on HomeCentral's servers. However, if a user is sitting in his or her house andwants to access one of the linked devices in that house, the user doesnot have to go through the Internet to access that device as the devicecan be accessed directly as well.

For example, the Home Central system knows whether a user is local orremote based on the current IP address of the user's location.Therefore, if the user is connecting to the system from his or herhouse, the system recognizes the PC's external IP address as the same asthe home's IP address and connects the PC directly to the device (e.g.,camera, environmental device, security system). However, when the useris remote, such as at the user's office or another house, and the usertries to connect to the device, the system recognizes the remoteexternal IP address as different than the home IP address and requiresthe user to go across the Internet to attach to the device. Therefore inthis Home Central system, the user can connect directly to a devicethrough the network at the user's location, or, if needed, go across theInternet.

While not being limited to a particular theory, the system uses astandard router as its gateway to IP-enabled devices. Preferably, thestandard router is used only at the transmission layer (e.g., the TCP/IPlayer) and it does not do any protocol conversion or mission control.The router used in the system has no logic in it to control the devices;instead the router only provides standard routing. This is a significantdifference in comparison to how conventional systems work in the markettoday, as the conventional systems rely on an intelligent device to sitat the user's location and function as the traffic cop as well as theprotocol converter on-site.

In contrast to a conventional on-site traffic cop/protocol converter,the Home Central system employs a Listener that interprets thetransmission packet, figures out what device sent the packet and whatprotocol to use to decode it. The Listener also decrypts the packet ifit is encrypted, and stores it into a database. Therefore, the user'scomputer and devices can simply send their transmission to the HomeCentral system in an IP packet.

The Home Central system incorporates both a Listener that listens for,decrypts and queues the missions, and a Mission Controller that handlesthe processing of the mission in the background. The Listener sends thedata to a database accessible to the Mission Controller, and the MissionController determines what to do with the data. The Mission Controllerdecides the relative importance of the mission, for example, if theMission Controller needs to send a notification on the mission, if theMission Controller must process the mission immediately, or if theMission Controller needs to initiate some other action in the system.

Using this preferred approach, the Listener is freed up to do nothingbut listen, decode and transfer messages at the protocol layer and atthe security layer, so that it can perform these tasks very quickly. TheListener opens and, if needed, decrypts the packet, determines thesource of the transmission and its device type and places the messageinto the message queue where the Message Decoder can decode it and placeit into the database.

Conventionally, a message handler sits in the logic of a proprietarypiece of equipment that has to go on-site. In contradistinction, theMission Controller of the Home Central system is placed off-site in thehost environment where it can more easily communicate with numeroususers (e.g., customers) as well as via multiple communication devices.Moving this intelligent device to the Home Central's hosted environmentsaves cost to each individual customer and it allows the Home Centralsystem to launch, maintain and support new services to the entirecustomer base at the same time. For example, updates can be inserted atone location (e.g., the host environment) instead of loaded via a pieceof firmware or some other upgrade down onto each customer's individualsystems.

The system of the preferred embodiments does not require a localcomputer to operate and manage the user's security system, energymanagement, monitoring systems, etc. The Home Central system uses astandard router with a standard configuration. With the router, thesystem acts like a standard network for a plurality of PCs as desired.However, a PC or home computer is not required to run the system. Thisprovides a benefit for a user that owns a remote residence (e.g., avacation or second home) and doesn't want to leave a PC home computer onall the time at the remote residence. If a PC at a remote residencehaving a conventional home monitoring system gets a power hit, the useris not assured that the PC will restart and operate as intended.However, with the preferred home central system, when the power doescome back up at the vacation home, the home devices (e.g., cameras,security system, environmental devices) run and reconnect to the routerso that the user can connect to all of the devices remotely. That is,according to the preferred embodiments, the user on a client system caninteract with the devices of a vacation home through the Internet. Inthe same manner, a user from a remote client system (e.g., PC) caninteract with the home devices of a loved one through the Internet.

Moreover, the preferred system's architectural design providesadvantages for the users because the users do not have to open up portson the router. In other words, the users do not have to manage therouter. For example, a user sitting at his or her home can monitor adevice, such as a camera that is on the driveway because the user cannotsee the driveway from his or her location. During the monitoring, theuser is not opening up the router/network to the world, even for a brieftime while the user is connecting. Because Home Central's system cancontrol the router and the device, the system can open and close thesecurity holes.

As an example of a multi-step mission, the user's security system may beset to automatically arm at a given time (for example, 11 o'clock p.m.).In order to arm the user's security system, the Mission Controlleractually sends several commands down and the Listener listens forcertain responses to confirm that the commands have been processed. So,for example, the Mission Controller sends a mission down from thedatabase to arm the home security system. The Listener hears theresponse that the security system has received the commands and isarmed. Then the message controller sends another command down to bypassinterior zones. The home security system bypasses or deactivates thoseinterior zones so that an alarm does not go off in the middle of thenight if a person walks inside the house, for example, to get a glass ofwater. In the meantime, the Listener hears responses from the securitysystem that are typically, but not required, to be encrypted. Theseresponses come back into the Listener, which pulls the packet apartdecrypts it and places it in the message queue

The Listener, Message Decoder and the Mission Controller work at theoperating system level with commercial operating systems (e.g.,Microsoft). Preferably, the Listener, Mission Decoder and MissionController automatically come up when the operating system comes up(e.g. Windows Service). The Listener and Mission Controller constantlycommunicate with each other, for example, about every tenth of a second.The Mission Controller constantly polls the system to see if there areany events that should trigger a command, and ultimately a message, tobe communicated to devices in the field (across the Internet) via theListener. Meanwhile, the Listener is constantly listening on theInternet to multiple ports for inbound communications. When the Listenerfinds a communication, the Listener decrypts the packet, if appropriate,identifies the source IP and device type of the message, and then sendsthe message to the message queue. Therefore, the Listener listens to theInternet for a communications coming in, and also sends communicationsout.

The Mission Controller monitors the Listener and the database andexecutes the requests to remote devices in a sequential manner. Forexample, the Mission Controller remotely arms a residential securitysystem or changes a set point on a commercial thermostat. The MissionController continuously looks for queued communications (e.g., missions,request) in the database and communicates with the Listener to forwardcommands to devices connected to the system. The Listener communicateswith the database regarding transactions that come in and communicatesdirectly to the Mission Controller while it also listens to theInternet.

The Listener is unique in that it actually listens on the Internet forunsolicited communications. In other words, it is ready to send orreceive communications all the time and in this manner operates as botha client and a server. The Listener gathers the communications from theserver or Internet, determines where they come from, what device theyare and whether it needs to be decrypted at the security layer. TheListener can break apart the messages it gathers from the Internet intoits components so that the message can be queued for the MessageDecoder. The Message Decoder retrieves and decodes the messages from thequeue and reacts accordingly and immediately (e.g., in less than about atenth of a second) to place the updated data into the database.

Client systems may include personal computers including but not limitedto desktop, laptop, notebook, personal digital assistants (PDAs)cellular phones, etc., that communicate with the Home Central webservers. The web servers communicate with the end-user devices over theInternet. Generally, the only messages that go directly into the backend network (Listener) are messages from the on-site devices. In thismanner, the Listener doesn't listen to anything on the back end otherthan what's coming from the devices. If the user wants to communicatewith their personal web pages, the user can go through Home Central'sweb servers, which are at the front end of the architecture, as will bedescribed in greater detail below.

The Listener listens to the Internet for particular devices on knownports. For example, when a user surfs the Internet, HTTP traffic, forexample, comes in port 80. The Listeners don't listen to port 80 unlessspecific devices require communication via port 80. All usercommunication is via the front-end web servers, via HTTP protocol overport 80. The web servers listen to port 80 so that when a user makes arequest, the web servers go up, query all the databases, and serve upthe pages on the front end. On the back end, the Home Central systemuses the Internet as a communication network so that all the devices inthe user's home or small business can talk to the Listener and sendmessages to the Listener. These messages do not communicate directly tothe front end web servers. The Listener is considered a “back-end”system because it is not directly accessible by the user. Web serversare used to “front-end” the activities of the Listener and MissionController for user interaction.

The only way to access the control and monitoring capabilities of theHome Central system is through the Home Central web servers. The usersdon't connect directly to the back end, they connect to the web serversthat then take the information and display it in a way that is easy tounderstand. Accordingly, there is an Internet front end of the systemthat allows the user to see their information, and then there is anInternet back end, which enables home devices to communicate with theHome Central servers. The Listener is basically in the middle serving upinformation that the users can see, and grabbing information from thedevices for processing by the Home Central system.

A locator/receiver class or listener class creates a socket to listenfor the messages. The socket connects to a physical communication, forexample an external communication to the Internet. The Listener createsa socket for it to physically pass data from the network into theservers and then closes the socket when the communication stops.

During operation, the Mission Controller looks for events to processinto commands to be sent via the Listener, like a prescheduled event.For example, the Mission Controller creates a series of commands basedon found events and sends the messages directly to the Listener fordelivery to the appropriate end-user device(s). The Listener polls thedatabase (e.g., online transaction processing database) at thepredetermined intervals (e.g., about every tenth of a second) andtransmits device specific messages as needed to the remote devices. So,for example, if the Mission Controller has created a series of messagesthat are ready to go out to a remote device (e.g., a residentialsecurity system, environmental devices including lighting and climatecontrol devices, cameras), the Listener grabs the stored message, andsends the message(s) to the correct location (customer and device). TheMission Controller works independently of the Listener and the MessageDecoder.

Accordingly, the Listener communicates in both directions bycommunicating messages from the Mission Controller to the devices andcommunicating messages from devices to the Home Central system. TheListener also checks, for example, the On-line Transaction ProcessingDatabase to ensure that the Mission Controller & Decoder have noterroneously inputted a message into its queue independently of what theListener was tasked to do. The Listener can respond to the erroneousmessage, for example, by moving or removing the message. The MissionController feeds a mission (e.g., data, messages, tasks, instructions),via the Message Decoder, to the Listener and the Listener immediatelyprocesses the message.

Examples of the preferred embodiments of the Listener are illustrated atFIGS. 1 and 2. FIG. 1 shows an architectural diagram of a residentialsystem monitoring system in accordance with the preferred embodiments.The Listener 5 is identified as including TCP Socket Services 10 incommunication with the Mission Controller 12, identified as MissionControl Services. The Mission Controller 12 is responsible for executingmissions (e.g., series of requests or instructions) to remote devices ina sequential manner. As can be seen in FIG. 1, the Listener is also incommunication with a message queue 14, a Message Decoder 20 and anon-line transaction processing database 16, via the mission controller12. On incoming communications from devices, the Listener placesmessages in the message queue 14, from where the Message Decoder 20,identified as a Message Decoder Service, retrieves the messages. TheMessage Decoder 20 decodes the message and updates the on-linetransaction processing database 16 with the new data. Example dataincludes statuses changes to security systems and include but are notlimited to the following: ready, faulted, trouble, disarmed, armed andOK.

The Listener 5 is in communication with field devices via the Internet22. Still referring to FIG. 1, upon receipt of a message, the Listener 5forwards the message to the Internet. The listener 5 communicates overthe Internet 22 and via a router 24, and a modem 26, to devicesincluding cameras 28, a security system 30 and environmental devices 32.Moreover, the listener 5 also communicates over the Internet 22 and viaa router 34, and a modem 36, to devices of another residence, facilityor location, including cameras 38, a security system 40 andenvironmental devices 42. Continuing with the architectural diagramshown in FIG. 1, the Home Central user interface system includes HomeCentral web servers 44, 46, 48, that store information on and accessinformation from the on-line transaction processing database. Clientsystems 50, 52, 54, 56 communicate with the web servers via the Internet58 by accessing the web site associated with the Home Central system.While not being limited to a particular theory, the Home Central systemalso includes an image file database 60 that stores images captured bycameras 28, 38 at the user's location(s) and made available for displayon the Home Central system web site. The images stored in the image fileshare database 60 have references that are updated as unsolicited imagesare received from the field.

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary operation of thelistener upon receipt of a communication from the Internet. As can beseen in FIG. 2, a home device in a house 70 sends a communication viathe Internet 22 to the Home Central system. The Listener 5 listens forTransmission Control Protocol (TCP) and User Datagram Protocol (UDP)traffic on a range of ports over the Internet at step 102. If thetraffic is UDP, then the UDP socket services module 72 determines if theconnection is new or existing. If the connection is new, then at step104, the UDP socket services module 18 creates a new listener thread toprocess, and determines the origin of the transferring site, at step106, based on its originating Internet Protocol (IP) address. Unknownsite messages, meaning messages originating from an unknown site, aresaved to a Home Central database 74 (e.g., the on-line transactionprocessing database 16) at step 108. If the UDP connection is anexisting connection, or if the originating site is known, then thecommunication or message is saved in the Home Central database 74 atstep 110 for decoding and processing.

Still referring to FIG. 2, if the traffic is a TCP message, then theListener 5 determines if the connection is new or existing. If theconnection is new, then at step 112, the Listener 5 creates a newlistener thread to process, and determines the origin of thetransferring site based on its originating IP address, at step 114. In asimilar manner to the UDP Socket Services Module 18, the listener savesunknown site messages to the Home Central database 74 at step 116. Ifthe originating site is known, then at step 118 the Listener 5determines the device type (e.g., camera, security system, environmentaldevice) based on the port number of the originating site. Following step118, or if the connection is an existing connection, at step 120 thelistener 5 writes the device type, IP address and message to the messagequeue 14 for the Message Decoder 20 to process. At this time theListener 5 is free to process a next message from the Internet 22.Meanwhile, the Message Decoder 20 decodes messages entered into themessage queue 14, updates the status of the associated device and savesthe decoded message in the Home Central database 74, at step 122. As canbe seen in FIG. 2, once the Listener 5 sends the message, IP address anddevice type to the message queue 14, the Listener is free to processanother message. This enables the Listener 5 to process more messageswith greater efficiency than prior protocol socket services becausemessage processing is handled in the Message Decoder 20 allowing theListener 5 to be freed up to Listen for new messages.

FIG. 3 shows an exemplary listing of communications that have been savedto the home central database 74. The listing includes information from aresidential security system 30 during a night (e.g., from June 30 at10:53 PM) and next morning (e.g., to July 1 “Today” at 8:09 AM). Thelisting includes a location or type of a specific monitoring unit (e.g.,door sensor, motion detector, security control device), a status of thatunit and a time stamp of the event that triggered the security system.

FIG. 4 shows an exemplary table of pre-scheduled events that are to beprocessed by the mission controller. The table includes fieldsdescribing the event by, for example, status, name, start time, startaction, stop time, stop action and frequency, as is readily understoodby a skilled artisan.

FIG. 5 shows an exemplary illustration of information available to auser communicating remotely from a client system. It is understood thatthis information could also be available to a user communicating withthe Home Central system off the router 24, 34 of a monitored residence.As can be seen in FIG. 5, the available information includes the currentstatus, last status and time of the last status change for the home andits monitoring units/sensors. The information available to the user alsoincludes the current status of environmental devices (e.g., digitalthermostat) and cameras in the dwelling. The user can view images of theresidence, including triggered images from the monitoring cameras andlive video as desired.

FIG. 6 shows another exemplary illustration of information available toa user communicating remotely from a client system. It is furtherunderstood that this information could be available to a usercommunicating with the Home Central system off the router 24, 34 of amonitored residence. The illustration shown in FIG. 6 is similar to theillustration shown in FIG. 5, and includes information available from ahome (e.g., monitoring units, cameras, security sensors, energymanagement environmental devices). As can be seen in FIG. 6, the usercan view images of the residence, including triggered images from themonitoring cameras as desired.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes could bemade to the embodiments described above without departing from the broadinventive concept thereof. It is understood, therefore, that thisinvention is not limited to the particular embodiments disclosed, but itis intended to cover modifications within the spirit and scope of thepresent invention. Without further elaboration the foregoing will sofully illustrate my invention that others may, by applying current orfuture knowledge, readily adapt the same for use under variousconditions of service.

1. An off-site network enabled management system that dynamicallymanages remote residential and commercial devices located in a dwellingby listening to a communication from the remote devices over theInternet, comprising: a processor; an on-line database that storesmissions indicating an occurrence of an event to be processed by theremote devices and stores communications from the remote devices, saidon-line database also storing the communications from the remote devicesand a status associated with each of the stored communications; anoffsite listener that listens for the communications over the Internet,said listener receiving an unsolicited communication over the Internetfrom a remote device in a native protocol of a remote device; saidlistener adapted to translate the communications, determine the locationand type of remote device that originated each of the communications,and store the communications in the on-line database, the remote devicesincluding an IP-enabled device; and a message queue and a messagedecoder, said message queue in communication with said listener andadapted to store the communications received by said listener, saidmessage decoder in communication with said message queue and saidon-line database, said message decoder adapted to retrieve saidcommunications from said message queue, decode said communications, andupdate the status associated with said communication in said on-linedatabase; an offsite mission controller that processes the missionsstored in the on-line database by executing the missions stored in theon-line database and directing said listener to transmit device specificmessages associated with the missions to a corresponding one of theremote devices to perform the mission; said mission controller executingcommands either automatically based on user defined rules, or executingcommands remotely through real-time end user response to the missionssent by the mission controller.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein thedevice specific messages include a multiple step process, each stephaving a predetermined number of allowable retries and a timeout window,wherein the mission fails when the predetermined number of retries isexceeded or the timeout window expires, and the mission succeeds uponcompletion of each step.
 3. The system of claim 1, further comprising aweb server for communication with client systems located remotely fromthe dwelling.
 4. The system of claim 1, wherein said listenercommunicates periodically and determines if a stored mission is readyfor processing.
 5. The system of claim 1, wherein said missioncontroller directs said listener to transmit device specific messages bycreating commands based on found events and sending those devicespecific messages to the listener for delivery to the appropriate deviceand location.
 6. The system of claim 1, wherein said listener retrievesa list of active ports and protocols to listen for from said on-linedatabase.
 7. The system of claim 6, wherein said mission controllercreates a class for each active UDP and TCP port, said class creating asocket to begin listening for incoming messages from the active ports.8. The system of claim 7, wherein each port and protocol is linked to aspecific one of each remote device type.
 9. The system of claim 1,wherein the IP-enabled device is a security system including a pluralityof alarm zones, and the mission includes changing the current state ofless than all of the plurality of alarm zones of the security system.10. A method for remote users in off-site on-line locations to manageany internet connected, remote devices located in a dwelling comprising:an on-line database that stores missions indicating an occurrence of anevent to be processed by the remote devices and stores communicationsfrom the remote devices, said on-line database also storing thecommunications from the remote devices and a status associated with eachof the stored communications; an offsite listener that listens for thecommunications over the Internet, said listener receiving an unsolicitedcommunication over the Internet from a remote device in a nativeprotocol of a remote device, without the need for local controllers orother onsite personal computers; said listener adapted to translate thecommunications, determine the location and type of remote device thatoriginated each of the communications, and store the communications inthe on-line database, the remote devices including an IP-enabled device,being one of a security system, an environmental device or a camera; anda message queue and a message decoder, said message queue incommunication with said listener and adapted to store the communicationsreceived by said listener, said message decoder in communication withsaid message queue and said on-line database, said message decoderadapted to retrieve said communications from said message queue, decodesaid communications, and update the status associated with saidcommunication in said on-line database; storing the communication and anindication of the originating remote device into the message queue. 11.The method of claim 10, after the step of receiving a communication overthe internet, further comprising decrypting the communication.
 12. Themethod of claim 10, after the step of receiving a communication over theinternet, further comprising creating a new listener thread for thecommunication.
 13. The method of claim 10, further comprising storingthe communication into the on-line database.
 14. The method of claim 10,before the step of decoding the communication, further comprisingreceiving a next communication over the Internet from another remotedevice.
 15. The method of claim 10, wherein the step of decrypting thecommunication into the protocol of the originating remote device that isreadable by the management applications.